IRCTC Makes Aadhaar Card Compulsory For Booking Train Tickets; All Passengers Can Get Insurance Now

Update: We got a lot of comments regarding this story stating that Aadhaar will not be made compulsory and it goes against court order. It is confirmed that Aadhaar based ticketing will be rolled out this December, however, we are still confirming if their will be alternative ways of booking the ticket. We have got in touch with authorities, and should update this article as soon as we get the confirmation.

(Note: Just for confirmation we have included the links confirming the same from other established media houses)

Earlier…

Linking of Aadhaar cards with train tickets would be mandatory effective December, 2016, which means that passengers who don’t have Aadhaar Card, won’t be able to issue train tickets.

This major collaboration between Aadhaar and train tickets would be made compulsory for both reserved and unreserved categories; besides holding true for online as well as counter tickets.

As we had shared earlier, this is the biggest push for Aadhaar based ecosystem to be ever implemented in India. Already more than 96% of Indians have an Aadhaar Card; and the remaining few would be now forced to apply for one.

The linking of Aadhaar database with IRCTC’s ticketing system is already on, and the process is expected to be over by December.

Advantage: Aadhaar in Train Bookings

There are innumerable advantages of linking Aadhaar with train bookings, as there would be a centralized, well documented and live database of passengers which can be immensely useful for various purposes.

However, the intention of Indian Railways to link Aadhaar immediately has been mainly inspired from three factors:

a) Giving out concessions would be easier and fair now. As Aadhaar card would be directly linked with the ticket, the railway authorities would be able to easily check whether the concession is eligible or not. Ticket collectors would be carrying mobile handheld device, which will instantly verify the claims of the passenger. As shared earlier, Railways provide concessions across more than 50 categories, and a substantial portion of them is misused.

b) The use Aadhaar card would stop unauthorized agents and touts from booking tickets in fake names, and then selling them at higher prices. IRCTC CMD A K Manocha said, “We have started the process to issue Aadhar based ticketing and likely to be rolled out by December this year . People will now have to provide Aadhaar number for registering with IRCTC. This will check fraudulent booking by touts and being transparency in the ticketing,”

c) Every train passenger would be able to get insurance now. As of now, only online booking of train tickets allow passengers to opt for travel insurance, which would be now offered to counter ticket holders as well; and most importantly, unreserved passengers as well.

Manocha further said, “About 27 lakh passengers have availed the travel insurance since the launch of insurance on September 1. The reason we have not covered unreserved category yet is that we don’t have any database of people travelling in unreserved coaches but with Aadhar that is possible. It will also bring the insurance premium from 92 paise now to somewhere around 10-50p per travel,”

Do you think that making Aadhaar compulsory for booking train tickets would be a useful strategy for Indian Railways; or it would be another burden for passengers? Do share your views by commenting right here!

Mohul keenly observes the nuances of Indian startup world; and tries to demystify the secrets behind Technology, Marketing, Mobile and Internet. He is a Writer by passion, Marketer by choice and Entrepreneur by compulsion. Follow him on Twitter here: @_mohul

All of a sudden I can’t book trains anymore. Help! It looks like this AADHAAR number is also mandatory for us foreigners / tourists. We can’t get an Aadhaar. We already had to give our pasport details, including an image of the photo page. Isn’t that enough? Hope IRCTS will exempt/detach foreign accounts from this obligation. Simply because we can’t have Aadhaar and alreay proved our identity with passport!

WHAT THIS BLOODY HELL ADHAR? A PERSON WHO WORK AND LIVES IN OUTSIDE INDIA,FOR THEM WHAT? THIS PASSPORT IS VALID OR THIS HELL ADHAR?
NOW IF YOU ARE COMING FROM OUTSIDE SO TRAIN TICKET NOT ON PASSPORT-WHAT THE HELL YOU PEOPLE ARE DOING.

Government proceeds as thought they did not hear Supreme Court’s order that Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory and not person should be denied based on not having an Aadhaar. When we already have a galaxy of ID cards – voter ID, ration card, PAN card, Driving license, student ID card, government employee ID, etc all, what is the need of Aadhaar?

Also, Aadhaar’s privacy violation is a dangerous thing as unlike other ID cards, it collects all information in one place and is vulnerable to abuse.

It cannot be implemented. It goes against SC directives. There are still people who do not have Aadhar. Some people have lost their Aadhar number and do not know how to recover that number. And how railway can make Aadhar compulsory for unreserved tickets. Do millions of people carry their Aadhar number all the time? This decision violates privacy of people who are not interested in any government subsidy.

If this move is to avoid terror attacks, I am not finding it meaningful as trespassers still have access the coaches and move on… Also our railway stations are no safe especially tier 2 and below stations.

Where even dogs have been issued aadhar card the credibility is questionable. When courts ruled that aadhar should not be forced mandatory for any basic services or goods, this move is direct disregard of the order. Above all can any of the idiots explain how a foreign national travelling in train! If it’s only for indians, we are being forced to prove our identity whereas others will enjoy freedom.

Not a good move. Imagine this being done in other nations, they would cry for privacy rights. I think such uid should be compulsory only for government doles. Those who dont need to feed off govt freebies dont need to provide any uid. Ir can actually do better by making differential fares for non uid and uid customers. They were saying that they recover only 50% or so cost of a ticket. Now they can determine the full fare and charge that to those without uid. For concessional fares, give uid. This is will have a side effect of always reminding people and political parties wanting to get cheap mileage out of this pricing system that the government actually is subsidizing a lot for citizens and that nobody cry foul for implementing schemes like surge pricing.